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In shift, Venezuela opposition takes part in vote as foreign teams observe

AFP

With opposition parties participating for the first time since 2017 and European Union observers returning, Venezuela’s Sunday elections represent an early contest for power between the government and rivals in a country mired in economic crisis.

An estimated 21 million Venezuelans will be going to the polls to elect 23 state governors, as well as the mayors and council members of hundreds of cities.

Polling stations opened at 6:00 am (2200 GMT) for 12 hours, with results expected around “two or three in the morning,” a source with the National Electoral Council said. 

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Lines formed early.

“I’ve come to exercise my right to vote in a democratic country,” 74-year-old Jose Casanova, a militant leftist, said after casting his ballot in a working-class neighborhood in eastern Caracas.

He considers Venezuela “a blessed country despite all its problems.”

Leftist President Nicolas Maduro, whose deeply controversial presidency has left the South American nation facing punishing economic sanctions, has been seeking a measure of relief through careful shows of goodwill and democratic intention.

The opposition, which had boycotted elections for the past three years saying they were neither free nor fair, agreed to take part in Sunday’s votes after receiving assurances from the government. 

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Opposition leaders hope to raise their profile and gain momentum ahead of presidential elections set for 2024.

But there seems little doubt about the outcome: experts predict the Chavist movement that Maduro has led since the death of President Hugo Chavez in 2013 should easily prevail over a divided opposition.

– Limited opposition gains –

Henrique Capriles, who lost presidential elections both to Chavez in 2012 and to Maduro a year later, said the opposition’s division will undeniably weigh on it.

“Let’s be honest,” he said: “The PSUV (the governing Socialist Party) is going to win.”

Observers say the opposition stands to win in six states at most: Tachira, Zulia, Lara, Nueva Esparta, Sucre and Anzoategui.

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Caracas seeks a loosening of economic sanctions — notably from the United States, which does not recognize Maduro’s presidency — hoping at least for a partial lifting of the measures, said Oswaldo Ramirez, a consultant.

With hundreds of millions of dollars of its funds frozen abroad, Venezuela wants to be able to sell its petroleum more easily — the US historically is its biggest customer — and to end limits on imports. 

The government has made a calculated series of concessions, opening negotiations with the opposition, and inviting election observers from the EU, the United Nations and the US-based Carter Center.

The EU is sending its first observer mission in 15 years, as Caracas — long prickly about its “sovereignty” — has had to swallow its pride.

“The regime needs this mission” to give its election credibility, one opposition member said.

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After sitting out the 2018 presidential election and 2020 legislative votes, the opposition dropped its boycott strategy but has failed to agree on candidate lists.

Juan Guaido, who is recognized by the US and some 50 other countries as Venezuela’s president after the disputed 2018 election, has said the opposition must “unify the struggle.”

But he said he will not vote, and that “it is certain that Maduro is, and will continue to be, illegitimate.”

Maduro, clearly relishing the opposition’s division, has called for “a great election so that this will be a great victory for democracy.”

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International

‘No to animal abuse’, the clamor of a march of dogs and humans in Bolivia

Hundreds of police and activists raised their voices against animal abuse in a march in the Bolivian city of La Paz in which they were accompanied by dogs of different breeds and sizes, including a troop of canine agents and newly recruited puppies.

The march called by animal organizations and by the Bolivian Police, through the unit of the Forest Police and Environmental Preservation (Pofoma), whose national director, Colonel Raúl Rodríguez, explained to EFE that the objective of the activity was to “eradicate violence, mistreatment, cruelty and biocide” against animals.

“With this march the Bolivian Police is giving this message to our population that not to violence, not to mistreatment, not to cruelty, nor to biocide against our domestic and wild animals because they are living beings and as such, they have rights, they are animals that have no voice, but they do have rights,” Rodríguez said.

The police chief emphasized that animals “are living beings” that only ask for and require “a lot of affection.”

He also reminded those who own wild animals as pets, that this is “completely prohibited” by current regulations.

“The Bolivian Police already has the legal instruments to be able to proceed to the arrest and referral to the hands of Justice so that they cannot traffic in these animals,” he said.

He also mentioned that the country has rules such as Law 700, ‘For the defense of animals against acts of cruelty and mistreatment’, in force since 2015. Which included the criminal figure of the biocide to punish the murder of an animal with penalties of two to five years in prison.

According to Rodríguez, in 2023 Pofoma treated about 1,400 cases of animal abuse and so far this year there are already 600.

The director specified that eleven people have been sentenced to between three and seven years in prison for these crimes. In turn, about 70 cases are under investigation.

The mobilization traveled through the main streets of the historic center of La Paz. It was led by a troop of canine agents, most of them anti-drugs, who were well uniformed with vests.

Some k-9 agents, such as Vito, a black Labrador, stopped to greet affectionately. Also to receive affection from the people who came to see the march.

Among the most applauded were the new recruits, puppies of German and Belgian shepherds who were in the arms of human agents.

Behind them were groups of ‘civilian’ humans and dogs, such as Oslo, a chow chow puppy that carried a red handkerchief around his neck, and Tony, a huge San Bernardo who caught the attention of the public.

The march was nourished by animal groups and dog clubs of the sausage, pequinese and cocker spaniel breeds, among others. In addition to several police units, such as firefighters, who carried “disguised” cars with snouts and ears.

There was no shortage of boots of ‘Paquito’, the dog that is the mascot of the Bolivian Police, and an enthusiastic group of uniformed policemen with caps that had dog ears and makeup of snouts and whiskers on their faces, who were dancing coordinated choreographies.

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International

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, diagnosed with a new malignant tumor

The doctors of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, 85, have detected a new malignant tumor, which is why he will start a new treatment, the former governor reported.

“The results confirm a new tumor diagnosed as malignant,” Fujimori (1990-2000) published on his X social network account.

He accompanied the message of a short video that assured that he will give “a new battle” against cancer.

“Just now that I have regained my freedom, it is my turn to fight a new battle. The results confirm a new tumor diagnosed as malignant, so I’m going to start a treatment with my family,” he said.

In it, he recalled that the first time he was diagnosed with leukoplakia in his tongue was 27 years ago, when he was president, and that then, when he was imprisoned, he was again done “several surgeries.”

“In total, I have had six surgeries in the same place. This is how I have been fighting cancer for more than 27 years,” he said.

On April 30, Fujimori underwent an operation to rule out a tumor at the base of the tongue, as detailed at the time by his daughter Keiko Fujimori.

The surgery was performed “after overcoming (Fujimori) an atrial fibrillation crisis.”

The former president (1990-2000), released at the end of last year thanks to a humanitarian pardon received in 2017, underwent cancer treatment in the past for an injury in the oral area and has had recurrent medical attention for the same reason.

Precisely, his medical record was the reason for former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to grant him the pardon before he served 25 years of sentence for crimes against humanity.

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International

Petro calls former President Duque a “terrorist” for the “murder” of young people in protests

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, called his predecessor, Iván Duque, a “terrorist” this Friday, for the “murder” of young people during the social outcuse of 2021, in which, according to social organizations, more than 80 people died violently, most of them from police abuses.

“When 60 young people killed by the State die, burned, tortured, when thousands of young people were arrested, the question is then: who was the terrorist? Who should be described as a terrorist?” Petro asked himself at a government act in the city of Cali, capital of the department of Valle del Cauca (southwest).

He then added: “The president of the republic today has to say that the terrorist was not the popular youth, that the terrorist was the State of Colombia and particularly the Government of the (…) Mr. Duque. The 60 killed in Cali by you were not terrorists, the terrorist was you.”

Cali, and especially popular neighborhoods such as Siloé or Puerto Resistencia, were the epicenter of the protests that took place between April and June 2021 against the Government of then-President Duque (2018-2022), which began because of the discomfort at the possible approval of a tax reform.

The social outsting was 83 dead, more than half, allegedly at the hands of the Police. In total, according to the Ministry of Defense, there were more than 14,000 concentrations, marches and blockades since April 28, 2021.

The ruler explained that there are differences in the financing of the presidential campaigns and charged against his predecessor, former President Iván Duque (2018-2022), from whom he said he received financing with illicit money from the deceased drug trafficker José Guillermo Hernández, known as ‘Ñeñe Hernández’.

“There is a big difference between a campaign, that of Duque, between the money of the drug trafficking of Mr. ‘Ñeñe Hernández’, murdered later (in Brazil), or that in another campaign the money of the Spanish owner of Colsanitas prohibited by the Constitution and by law, to a group of organized workers deliver the little they have so that a left-wing party can become in power in Colombia,” he said.

 

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